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The Carbon Mission
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Lighter laundry

Every load you skip is electricity you do not pay for. Have your machines' energy labels or manuals to hand.

Where do you live?

Your wins so far

0 of 2 wins ticked off

Money saved
£0.00
a year off your bill
Carbon saved
0.0 kg
a year kept out of the air

Tick off each win as you do it and watch your savings grow.

  1. Step 1: Wait for a full load

    One full load instead of two half loads is one wash fewer to pay for. Let the basket fill up and you could skip a wash each week.

    Good to know: ENERGY STAR's advice for washing machines is to fill it up, and to wash in cooler water: heating the water takes about 90% of the energy a wash uses. Source: ENERGY STAR, clothes washers.

    kWh

    In kWh (kilowatt-hours, the units on your bill). It is on the energy label or in the manual. If the label gives kWh for 100 washes, divide by 100.

    washes a week

    By waiting until the machine is full.

    Fill in every box with your own numbers, and the money and carbon this saves will appear here.

  2. Step 2: Dry on a line or a rack

    Fresh air dries clothes for free. On a dry day, hang a load outside or on a rack by an open window instead of using the tumble dryer.

    kWh

    In kWh. It is on the energy label or in the manual. If the label gives kWh for 100 loads, divide by 100.

    loads a week

    Each week, on average over the year.

    Fill in every box with your own numbers, and the money and carbon this saves will appear here.

How we worked it out

For lights and devices: watts saved × how many × hours a day × 365 days ÷ 1,000 gives the kWh (kilowatt-hours, the units on your bill) saved in a year. For washing and drying: kWh for one load × loads a week × 52 weeks. We multiply the kWh by the price of one kWh for the money, and by the carbon released per kWh for the carbon.

  • Price: Ofgem, energy price cap for 1 October to 31 December 2026: 26.32p per kWh (paying by Direct Debit, average for England, Scotland and Wales).
  • Carbon: Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, greenhouse gas conversion factors 2026: 0.144 kg per kWh (0.131 for generating UK electricity plus 0.013 lost on the way to your home), counting carbon dioxide and the other greenhouse gases together.

The numbers in the boxes are yours to change, and your savings are only as exact as they are. Where a box starts on a number, it is only a starting point. Your progress is kept in this browser only.